RV Maker Updates Electric Vehicle Venture

A Moreno Valley, Calif.-based RV company that partnered last year with a foreign car maker, expects to begin building the more diminutive vehicles by the second quarter.

Brad Williams, CEO of MVP RV, said Jan. 14 that he expects to finalize a funding agreement in the next 30 to 60 days that would allow him to retrofit his current RV factory into a plant to build electric vehicles, according to the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

Williams was in Detroit last week to meet with an investment group and also watch as CT&T, the company’s foreign partner, unveiled new electric vehicle models at the North American International Auto Show.

MVP RV and South Korean-based car maker CT&T partnered last year to form MVP-EV to build the foreign company’s brand of small electric vehicles in the United States. At the time, officials had said they hoped to have the first vehicles rolling off an assembly line by January, and employing 120 people initially.

Williams will continue to build RVs in a separate building on the MVP campus.

Williams acknowledged that announcements like his cause excitement, and perhaps impatience, among the community. But he said deals like the one he’s been seeking to pay for his factory’s makeover take time.

“Once the funding occurs, we can pick up more speed,” he said. CT&T has a partnership in place with another factory in South Carolina, Williams said. If MVP can get the final amount of funding it needs within the next two months, it could be the first U.S. factory making the cars, he said.

Williams said that a contingent of CT&T executives who visited the Moreno Valley factory recently noted that they would need more space to eventually build electric buses.

“I think the electric car is here to stay,” he said. “I’m glad we’re getting our foot in the door.”